Homestead mailing list

[Roy Morgan <k1lky AT earthlink.net>]

On Jun 24, 2008, at 6:55 PM, Bunjov AT aol.com wrote:
...but I need to know whatever I can find
> out about 'in-stream water rights'. I've googled myself silly and  
> yet no
> clarification.

Sandy,

Celia tells me that the magazine we get about small farms and such  
lifestyle is Countryside.  Lately, it has had a number of articles or  
question/answers or letters from readers about mineral rights.   
"Mineral rights" may include water rights.  In the case that started  
the series of articles, a reader whose mineral rights were sold by an  
earlier owner to an oil company tells of "company men" who come at  
will onto her property to set off explosive charges in search of oil  
or gas.  Apparently they act badly in the process.  Important points I  
remember from the articles are:

 - It takes a lawyer or other specialist to know and understand "the  
law" regarding mineral rights in *your* area
 - Even if you get and read documents related to the sale of mineral  
rights, you may not know what they mean.  There are "terms of the art"  
in that field that do not mean what  you would expect.
 - The mineral rights to your land may have been sold a long time ago
 - If so, you *should* have been told of that event when you bought  
your place
 - Mineral rights can be un-excercised for decades, and then one day  
BOOM, you've got large equipment and/or dynamite charges going off in  
your pastures.
 - most oil/mineral companies are big conglomerates now, and are  
particularly un-interested in the land owners point of view.
 - people and equipment which are the earliest hint of new  
prospecting are most likely sub- or sub-sub- contractors of the rights  
owner, and are from places very far away.  Those folks care even less  
about the landowners' point of view.

I sincerely hope none of this applies to you.

Roy Morgan
k1lky AT earthlink.net
Lovettsville, VA 20180